Author and poet Roya Hakakian was a 12-year old living in Iran when the revolution swept through the country in 1979. She talks with David Brancaccio about fighting for freedom and the future of Iran. Hakakianís most recent book is a memoir that unpacks memories of adolescence, revolutionary fervor, and poetry called JOURNEY FROM THE LAND OF NO: A GIRLHOOD CAUGHT IN REVOLUTIONARY IRAN.

Roya Hakakian has collaborated on over a dozen hours of programming for some of the most prestigious journalism units on network television, inlcluding 60 MINUTES SUNDAY and 60 MINUTES II as well as on A& E's TRAVELS WITH HARRY hour, and ABC Documentary Specials with Peter Jennings, Discovery and The Learning Channel. Commissioned by UNICEF, Roya's most recent film, ARMED AND INNOCENT, on the subject of the involvement of underage children in wars around the world, has been selected among best short documentaries at several festivals, most recently as an official entry of the 2003 Telluride Mountain Film Festival.

Roya is the author of two highly acclaimed collections of poetry, the first of which, FOR THE SAKE OF WATER, received honorable mention in the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World and was nominated as the poetry book of the year by Iran News in 1993. Her essays have appeared in numerous broadcasts and publications, including the weekly FORWARD, and Connecticut NPR.

Most recently, Roya was the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship and the 2003 Dewitt/Wallace Reader's Digest Fellowship in writing. She is a founding member of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, and a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations. Her memoir of growing up a Jewish teenager in post-revolutionary Iran, JOURNEY FROM THE LAND OF NO is ELLE Magazine's Best Nonfiction Book of 2004.